Death at Border Patrol Station Probed

A 28-year-old Honduran national died Thursday night in a U.S. Border Patrol holding cell in Temecula, hours after a confrontation with agents, officials said.

The man, a suspected drug user identified by Honduran officials as Ecar Paz Moradel, had been at the U.S. Border Patrol station for about 10 hours when agents contacted the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to report that he had attempted suicide, officials said.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives are investigating the death.

Border Patrol officials declined to provide details about what occurred while the man was in the custody of the federal agency. “We don’t know if it was a suicide attempt or not,” said Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite. “I don’t want to make any comments on something that is being investigated.”

An autopsy by the Riverside County coroner is scheduled for Tuesday. “We investigate all in-custody deaths. At this time, we don’t know the cause of this death,” said sheriff’s spokesman Earl Quinata.

A video camera inside Paz Moradel’s cell may have captured his death, and a copy of the tape is being made available to investigators, said Border Patrol spokesman Angel Santa Ana.

Vivian Panting, the Honduran consul general in Los Angeles, said Border Patrol authorities told her representative that Paz Moradel attacked an agent and had been sprayed with pepper spray.

“We don’t have any details. I am upset in particular because they are supposed to inform consular offices when they detain a Honduran national,” Panting said.

“If we would have been able to go down there and talk to him and tell him that he has rights, that he could see an attorney, that we could contact his family, we might have been able to prevent [his death].”

Panting said her office knows little about Paz Moradel besides his name and the fact that he was deported once, in 1999.

Quinata said that at 9:20 p.m. Thursday, the Sheriff’s Department in Temecula received a call from the Border Patrol station about a possible attempted suicide.

When the deputies arrived, Paz Moradel was dead.

Earlier in the day, he was turned over to the Border Patrol by officers with the Corona Police Department, who had taken him into custody for allegedly breaking into a veterinarian’s office.

Quinata said Paz Moradel became “combative and uncooperative” when Border Patrol agents told him he would be processed and kept in a holding facility while awaiting deportation.

Quinata declined to elaborate on how he was combative, or how the federal agents responded, only saying that Paz Moradel’s behavior forced Border Patrol authorities to place him in a secured holding cell by himself.

Two hours after being placed in that cell, he was found dead, Quinata said.

“He was found lying down in the cell. He had not hung himself,” he said.

Corona police arrested the man on Wednesday and Thursday, said Corona police spokesman Jerry Rodriguez.

The first time, he said, Paz Moradel was arrested outside the police station on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance. He had flagged down a police officer and made strange statements, Rodriguez said.

“He was telling [the officer] that he wanted him to remove the transmitter which was planted in his forehead,” Rodriguez said.

“The officer felt that he may have ingested methamphetamine and he admitted to using the day before.”

Paz Moradel was cited and released at about 5 the next morning. Two hours later, he was arrested again for kicking his way into a veterinary hospital on the 400 block of East 6th Street.

Christopher Alderson, a technician at the AAA Animal Hospital in Corona, said he held the man in a chokehold for a few minutes until police arrived. Alderson said the man was about 5 feet 10 and muscular and could have easily fought him, but did not.

“I even petted his head at one point, and he just relaxed and started telling me some sort of story in Spanish,” Alderson said. “He was submissive the whole time. “

Alderson described him as well-dressed and clean-cut, with a large bruise on his forehead. He said the man did not appear to be drunk.

“I’ve dealt with people who are abrasive and violent and this guy was just confused and sad,” Alderson said.

Corona police arrested Paz Moradel shortly after the break-in, Rodriguez said, and he was calm and made no suicidal comments.

A Spanish-speaking Corona police officer determined that Paz Moradel was an illegal immigrant, Rodriguez said, and he was handed over to Border Patrol agents about 11:30 a.m.

“He was not violent,” Rodriguez said.

“He was cooperative and released to their custody. “